Reader Mail: What's Your Favorite Fashion Film?

In today's Reader Mailbag:

Dear BS:

I was just wondering, what do you think is the most fashionable film? And will you ask everyone else?

XO
A.J.

Oooh, this is really one of our very favorite questions. We guess there are a few parts of it: Our first answer to this is always Amelie—it just always springs to mind first. But that movie wasn't so much about the costumes as it was about the production design, which was incredible. We couldn't find good production stills, so we thought we'd just put up this YouTube clip of the final scene. We need to move to Paris. Stat.

Anyway: We could make cases for loads of them, including Belle de Jour and like six million others. But what we're thinking about today is Bonnie and Clyde. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were just so unbelievably hot.

Let's have a contest: If people don't mind nominating their favorite fashion film, we'll figure out what's tops, and then we'll get a copy and give it away. Bit convoluted, but then we really wouldn't have our contests any other way.

Comments

[danielle]

In the Mood for Love I believe Maggie Cheung wears something like 40 different Qipao dresses throughout the movie....so i know it's not the most on trend fashion movie...but the dresses are gorgeous and the movie is gorgeous.

Also, Tony Leung's suits are amazingly tailored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa0JAvjx05c&feature=related

[lauren]

I think Breakfast at Tiffany's is a bit cliche, but true. Marie Antoinette was interesting for period pieces.

[shellybean]

I love the period pieces! Like Pride and Prejudice or Valmont.

[Ms. Fab]

I also love, love, love Belle Du Jour -- but I must put in a plug for Chinatown. Faye Dunaway looks incredible in that movie, as she does in all her movies from the 70s.

[uahmed]

I have to say Secretary with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her blouses and skirts were crazy sexy in a conservative way (she made it possible).

[Cheri]

It wasn't until this year that I began strongly noticing different clothing styles, accessories, and items of note that might be considered "fashion forward".

Having said that, I'll admit to not having a favorite "fashionable film". :D

[amandabug]

i love my fair lady. it's totally period, but i'm still inspired by its styling and colors.

[Andrea]

I like the question, even though I'm not sure what A.J. means by "fashionable film." But I definitely thought of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." I also remember loving the clothes in "Out of Africa."

Oh, wait--what am I thinking?! Hands down, it's got to be one of my favorite movies of all time: Preston Sturges' "The Palm Beach Story." It's not only hilarious and sexy and delightful, but it's got a fabulously over-the-top shopping-for-a-new-wardrobe scene, Claudette Colbert wearing a silk purse made out of a sow's ear (okay, looking tres chic in a blanket & pj's), and the most gorgeous evening gown. The Palm Beach Story!! Check out the second gown (the black one) in this clip:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A-KIBqHnL8&feature=related
and then this one is just funny, but a little poignant, too:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9opdCUN0TMc&feature=related

[kat]

I'm totally lame, but the first things that come to mind are "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" and "Ruthless People." They both conveyed an excitement about fashion and clothes to me as a young age (even if both are, well, period pieces now as well).

I also used to love the show on USA, La Femme Nikita, for the accessories; thought they were very creative.

Otherwise, just for straight up clothes, the Audrey Hepburn comedy "How to Steal a Million" is a great one (Peter O'Toole even jokes about how everything she wears is Givenchy), The Awful Truth... and maybe Working Girl, also. Bonnie & Clyde and Amelie are also great; haven't seen Belle du Jour (heading to Netflix after this!)

[shellybean]

Okay I thought of a kooky one- Troop Beverly Hills; which I watched and rewatched a million times as a kid.
Also, I watched Bell Book and Candle with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak and was totally awed by how chic she looked in the entire movie!

[Roxy]

Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn...she wears all these 50's frocks with full skirts that are playful and elegant at the same time...oh. Just thinking about makes me want to ride a bicycle in a piazza somewhere. And this one may seem quirky, but I love Julie Andrews' silhouettes in The Sound of Music. All those tiny bodices and full skirts - beautiful! Even the curtains she used to make the kids' playclothes had panache.

[Lisa]

This might seem like a given - but for a current film Devil wears Prada....

[rosa]

With no doubt Annie Hall and The Royal Tenenbaums.

[kimberleigh]

Factory Girl...eh?

[danielle]

speaking of miss maggie gyllenhaal...this movie is total chick bliss...mona lisa smile. i've never seen a plaid shirt look so hot and also, that garnet heart she wears around her neck is perfect. actually, everything she wears in that movie screams "i'm hot and sexual and comfortable" i love it.

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/revolution_studios/mona_lisa_smile/maggie_gyllenhaal/mona.jpg

http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2003_Mona_Lisa_Smile/2003_mona_lisa_smile_007.jpg

[Caset]

Vintage, I'd say Philadelphia Story with Katherine Hepburn and The Women with Norma Shearer. Contemporary, though it's set in the 20s, I'd go with Kate Beckinsale in Cold Comfort Farm. Maybe not her party clothes (those belong in fabulous vintage), but I think what she wears day to day is absolutely adorable and perfectly adaptable.

[Andrea]

Hey, Roxy. I LOVE Roman Holiday. I think it was her first film--or first starring role--and while everybody thinks of Breakfast at Tiffany's (as well they should) Roman Holiday is wonderful, too. Probably anything with Audrey in it qualifies--her ski lodge look in Charade, anyone? (In the end though, for this, I'm standing by my nomination, above!)

[Meli]

I second In The Mood For Love. And add Funny Face...Audrey Hepburn modeling Givenchy in Paris with a dapper Fred Astaire as photographer. I also have to nominate The Hunger with Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie for it's '80's does the '40's vampire chic.

[Ally]

I may be the only one who thinks so, but I am always drawn to the fashions of period movies set in the 50s or 60s, like Crybaby and Grease. I love the full, swingy dresses and especially the high waisted pencil skirts. And I particularly like Rizzo's outfits in the movie.

[karen]

Hands down for me - How to Steal a Million - not the most famous of Audrey Hepburn's films - but i watch it over and over again - It is set in Paris and all the clothes are by Givenchy - but it is filled with elegant 60's mod clothing (french mod) with fabulous accessories like bubble cars. would also have to say Funny Face for couture classic - so lovely:)

[Melicious]

Pillow Talk! The white dress with the fur stole... all the matching handbags and shoes... leopard+red. Fashion perfection.

[Dana]

How about Pink Flamingos? I think Divine was pretty divine in that movie as far as fashion choices and makeup go haha

[coree]

Funny Face, amazing and mod and there is singing and dancing!

[Lola]

Ok, this isn't necessarily favorite but perhaps a nod to the first movies that made a fashion impression on my young mind...Pretty in Pink. I loved the idea of being funky and different and even though I thought her ultimate dress was ugly, the idea was great. And Annie Potts was my real inspiration in that one - made me want to be "vintage" when I lived in a small, midwestern town with no vintage stores!

And then Dirty Dancing gave me inspirations that I could actually achieve! I loved wearing my keds with rolled up, cut off jean short...I felt SO cute.

So those are my vote for the first films that made a fashion impact on me!

[Zann]

Someone once made me watch Down With Love for the clothes. I'm surprised no one has named it yet. That said, it doesn't get my vote.

I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but for me, it's Dirty Dancing 2. I'll own up to multiple viewings of it for all the marvellous swing dresses. Diego Luna's cheeky smile and smooth dance moves are just an accidental bonuses.

[Mary]

Pillow Talk is a good one, but my vote goes to an Audrey movie that no one has mentioned yet: Sabrina. The fabulous little suit she wears when she returns from Paris, the fabulous Givenchy gown she wears to the party, the adorable plaid shirt and shorts when she goes sailing w/ HB. And if I looked half as good as her in black leggings and flats . . .

[Caitlin]

Jean-Luc Godard's A Woman is a Woman.

[Andrea Fisher]

I said the exact same thing in my blog just a few weeks ago. I mean could Faye Dunaway be any more outrageously sexy on the outside but cool as a cucumber on the inside?

[Anna]

CLUELESS!

[Starlee]

Umbrellas of Cherbourg is so great looking it almost makes me stressed out. All the outfits the characters wear coordinate with their surroundings. So Catherine Deneuve will be wearing some great frock and it'll match perfectly with the wallpaper behind her, but not like that lame scene in Garden State where Zack Braff is in the bathroom at his mom's funeral. Not like that at all. The opposite, in fact. Instead of annoying, it is not annoying. See? Opposite. The whole movie will make you want to throw away every black article of clothing you have, and you'll probably end up making some insane brightly colored clothing impulse buy that you'll regret a month later...but, thems the breaks sometimes, you know? At the very least, you'll run to the paint store and grab fifty thousand samples, totally determined to repaint your living room from top to finish, until you see that a new Project Runway is on and you forget all about it.

Also, Rosemary's Baby. She wears these sixties shift dreses the entire time and you never get sick of them. When she prepares her overnight bag for the hospital (where she thinks she'll be having her devil baby, but boy is she ever wrong!) you see her folding these little dresses up one by one, and it's just one of the most adorable things I've ever seen.

[Starlee]

What's cool about Umbrellas of Cherbourg too, is that every one gets a chance to be fashionable, not just the young, pretty folk. The old mom on her deathbed is all dolled up. The umbrella shop owner wears suits that match her wears. Equal opportunity fashion is the way to go.